Pedigree Tracks

Q1. Pedigree Tracks Pedigree identified the alarming trend of canine obesity as an opportunity to engage customers. How could the health of so many dogs be under threat when their owners loved them so? The simple answer was that people were not clear on how much to feed them.   Inspired by human health tracking apps like Fitbit and Nike FuelBand, the idea was to harness the ‘quantified self’ phenomenon to solve the dog obesity crisis. Pedigree Tracks was born, a mobile app that enabled dog owners to create a personalized profile of their dog, track its exercise on walks, and find out exactly what the perfect diet for it would be across Pedigree’s portfolio of wet food, dry food, and treats. To supplement the app Pedigree used paid-for search and SEO (search engine optimization) to drive traffic to the microsite and also carried out Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube activity. New content was uploaded daily and Pedigree encouraged dog owners to interact and share their experiences. This led to a 7.5% increase in sales and the first growth in their wet food products for more than five years. But, more important, it created the largest database of pet and pet owners’ behaviors, which, in turn, will help fuel pedigree’s mission to provide the best possible nutrition for animals.   Required: Using your understanding of the aims of digital marketing, explain why Pedigree Tracks has been so successful for Pedigree.